Wow...what a week!

Well, we haven’t come up for air for over a week now, but it was a crazy, wonderful Christmas as usual!! There isn’t enough time (or words) to explain it all in great detail, but here is a quick recap since I last posted (actually it ended up getting kind of long now that I am re-reading it, but owell):

Sunday, December 23: We celebrated Christmas with my dad’s side of the family, which included my Dad, my step-mom Pat, my sister Shawn, her husband Frank, their kids Francesca, Sam and Jacqueline and my brother Johnny. It was a wonderful time! I really enjoy this get together because 1) I don’t get to see my dad’s side of the family enough, and 2) it is just the right size! Some of our family gatherings over the holidays get so big, which is great in its own way, but then I don’t even feel like I can say hi to everyone let alone have a meaningful conversation with them, but the celebration at my dad’s is just the right size! Check out this great picture I got of my dad feeding Seville…isn’t that sweet! Below that are all of the other pictures from our evening together!

Monday, December 24 (Christmas Eve): We started off by spending some time at my mom and Jon’s in the afternoon, then around 4:30 p.m. we headed over to Scott’s parents for the annual Fillingham Christmas Eve Celebration! I cannot even begin to tell you how many people (and presents) are at this celebration each year! We decided that we had at least 45 people this year! We had appetizers, went to Christmas Eve service at church and then came back to open gifts…keep in mind that this year we only did gifts for kids under 12, so the picture of gifts under the tree is mainly just for kids…hard to believe, huh!! Last, but certainly not least, we put out cookies, milk (and a grape sucker...don't know why) for Santa and carrots for the reindeer!!!



Tuesday, December 25 (Christmas Day): Our normal tradition (for the past several years) goes like this: My Mom and Jon spend the night at our house and wake up with us on Christmas morning! We open gifts, play with the kids, have breakfast, and then I rush off to take a shower and get ready for the day before heading over to my dad’s for a bit, and then over to Scott’s parents. This year there was a scheduling conflict over at my dad’s, so we did not go over there on Christmas Day and thus got a few more hours at our house. I missed seeing my dad and Pat, but the extra time at home was nice. Around 2:30 p.m. we headed over to Jim and Susie’s house and celebrated Christmas with them and Scott’s brother Craig for a few hours. Around 6:00 p.m. Scott’s Aunt Donna, Uncle Kelly and their kids Grace, Foster and Blake came over, along with Scott’s grandma for Christmas dinner! The pictures below are broken into two parts 1) Christmas morning at our house, and 2) Christmas afternoon and evening at Scott’s parent’s house!





Wednesday, December 26 (the aftermath): As I have mentioned before, I am a clean freak, so I kind of go into shock ever year on the day after Christmas. There is stuff all over our house from us rushing off the day before, and then we bring home a bunch of new stuff on top of that! This year I spent most of the 26th regrouping…cleaning out old toys and making way for new ones…I felt so, so much better at the end of the day!! That night we also went out to eat with my mom and Jon because they were getting ready to go to Arizona for a week. We ate Mexican and then came back to play Guitar Hero and Big Brain Academy. It was lots of fun!

Thursday, December 27: Seville went to the doctor in the AM and we found out she had an ear infection and sore on her tongue…which explains why she hasn’t been eating well! I just had her in on December 12th, so it is amazing how quick those ear infections can develop! We ran a bunch of errands that afternoon and then that evening our really good friends Brett, Becki, Sierra and Averi came over to celebrate x-mas!! The girls had so much fun playing, and it had been too long since we were able to catch up with Becki and Brett!! We always love spending time with them and wish we could do it more often!

Friday, December 28: Hadley and I got up early (in the middle of yet ANOTHER snow storm) and took my mom and Jon to the airport. Hadley thought that was very neat!! That evening we went to the big December Birthday celebrations for Scott’s side of the family. It was up North at his Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Charlie’s house and again we had about 45 people!! There were lots of birthdays and some leftover x-mas gifts, so it felt like Christmas Eve all over again!

Saturday, December 29: We got up and headed to Scott’s Grandma Skinner’s house around 11:00 for our Christmas celebration with her. It was wonderful and actually wrapped up our Christmas celebrations for this year!! She always makes a wonderful lunch and she enjoys seeing the girls so much! There are some pictures below! Last night we decided to stay in…finally…so we all rented a movie of our choice, picked up some McDonald’s and just stayed in!! I must admit…it was very nice!!



Tomorrow we are going to have a small New Year’s Eve celebration at our house (very, very kid friendly) and then New Year’s Day is the big annual celebration that we always look forward to over at my dad’s! Lots of yummy food, poker, gambling, family and friends!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday week like we did! Can’t wait to do it all again next year!! We are all so truly, truly blessed! However, it is so sad when it is all over, and Hadley is just devastated this year because we are done with her special calendar…she keeps asking to check her calendar every day!! Poor girl!! I guess we are going to start counting down the days to Scott’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, etc.!

The festivities begin…

I don’t have much time to write because I still have a TON of presents to wrap, but I wanted to get some pictures posted before I have a million more (which I know is sure to happen over the next few days!)

The Christmas festivities are definitely in full swing around here!! On Friday night we finally got to take Hadley and Alyson out for their big Christmas surprise…a CINDERELLA CARRIAGE RIDE on the Plaza!! How fun!! We were a bit rushed because parking was so horrible and the carriage company wasn’t very nice about it, but once we got settled in we really enjoyed our ride…the girls (and us) thought it was over way to quick, but isn’t that the way it always is!! It was so neat to look at all the lights while we rode around in the carriage. It must have been meant to be that we had to reschedule because it was the most beautiful night. We didn’t even need hats or gloves (except the babies!!) Afterwards we went out to eat at Winstead’s…the babies are getting so big…they each ate some grilled cheese!! Here are some pictures from our ride. Our horse was named P.K. and the house right behind us was named Grasshopper…the girls loved that!!



On Saturday morning we made our traditional Christmas sugar cookies with icing. Gam and Grampa came over to enjoy this tradition with us. It is neat to see how Hadley’s involvement in the process changes from year to year. She was such a big help this year! Her favorite part was actually getting flour out of the jar and spreading it all over the counter! I don’t have time to post all of the pictures individually, but you will see that Hadley gave sissy her first cookie! Seville LOVED it!! Seville also got to try some dough (no eggs) to get into the spirit!! You will also see a lot of pictures of Scott’s big SURPRISE yesterday! I got him Guitar Hero for Christmas (we would rather have Rock Band, but it isn’t out for Wii yet!) I let him open it yesterday morning because I knew he wanted to take it to our neighborhood Christmas party last night. While we were making cookies Scott got it all setup and then everyone, including my mom and Jon, joined in and gave it a try. Check out the pics…some of them are hilarious! See…it really is a game that everyone can play and enjoy! You can tell on my mom’s face that she actually is having a really good time…GO GAM!!! And Hadley is such the little rocker chick! Man, she amazes us with her rhythm and moves already!!



Last night we went to our second annual neighborhood holiday party!! It was a great time! There were lots and lots of yummy appetizers (my favorite!) We had a white elephant exchange and then played Wii, Guitar Hero, pool and ping-pong. It was great to catch up with all of our neighbors. It is amazing how little we see them even though we all live on the same street!! We are fortunate to have such a great cul-de-sac with some many kids right around Hadley and Seville’s age. We really couldn’t ask to live on a better street!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas festivities like we are!! Today we are headed over to my dad’s to celebrate with that side of the family!!! Can’t wait to spend some time with all of them!!

What a fun night...

Last night (Wednesday) we were getting ready to go to dance when we got a call from Kristi (well, actually Alyson was the one who called believe it or not!) They wanted to know if we wanted to skip dance and come over for some pizza and meet her sister, Kim, who was in town from L.A. (she is actually in a very popular band, but I won't say which one!) We had such a fun night!! Kristi’s brother Jeremy came over too with his two boys and the kids played and played and played!! Kim was soooo sweet, and we really enjoyed getting the chance to meet her. It is funny because I feel like I know Kristi’s family even though I haven’t really met that many of them! Once again, we all played Rock Band at some point in the evening. Kim joined in the fun and Kristi’s brother Jeremy brought a second guitar, so that added an interesting twist!

I also got my hair cut yesterday!! I went to my next-door neighbor’s stylist and she did an AWESOME job! I am really happy with it!! I am, however, very upset that she (the stylist) went into labor at 1:00 a.m. last night and now my neighbor Amy did NOT get to get her hair cut and colored today!! Ya see, she had given me her appointment yesterday and took the Thursday one instead (which should have been mine!) I cannot even tell you how bad I feel since it was my first time to see her and Amy has been seeing her for years!! As far as my hair goes, I’ve kept it my natural color for about the past two years…mainly to save time and money, but it was just looking so dull, and Scott says he likes it better blonde (when I finally drug it out of him), so I had her put some blonde back in it yesterday…it is nice to have some brightness again!! Hopefully I won’t regret the upkeep that is going to take!!

Tonight we met my Mom and Jon out to eat at Panera. It is so nice to not be very far from them. We just called on a whim and met half way, and then we did a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping afterwards. Hadley loves any chance to see her Grandparents! Now the kids are in bed, I have a load of laundry in, and I am off to bed too! Tomorrow is my last day of work until after the New Year!! Yeah...I can't wait for a break!!

Christmas Countdown Continues

The last few days have been full of more holiday cheer! Sunday around noon we headed over to Scott’s parents (actually Hadley headed over about an hour earlier than the rest of us because she just couldn’t wait any longer!!) Hadley and Grandma SueSue made chocolate dipped pretzels and some wonderful homemade fruit granola. We all had a big Sunday lunch together (roast, potatoes, carrots, etc.), and then Jim and Scott watched the girls while Susie continued to cook up a storm and I went to grab a few more x-mas gifts for Hadley.

After the girls took naps we headed over to our good friends Kelly and Kyle’s house for dinner. Kelly cooked us an awesome chicken and croissant dish…it was sooo good!! Then the boys played Wii for a bit while we played with the girls. Kelly and Kyle have a little girl named Evie who is 6 weeks older than Seville. She is so cute and such a sweet and content baby! Hadley had a blast getting her to laugh, and I think Evie enjoyed it too! Seville just kept stealing all of Evie’s toys and taking things off the shelf in her room…she is into everything! I didn’t take any pictures of the girls on Sunday night, but I do have this picture of Kelly, Kyle and Evie from the fall hayride back in October! Thanks for having us over guys…it was a blast! We need to go it again soon!

Tonight I took Hadley to see a house that I have wanted her to see for quite some time. Let’s just call it the Penguin House. Words cannot even explain how crazy this house is…it has like nine million blow up things in the yard (front and back) and they all have penguins in/on them. They even have a huge blow-up screen above the garage playing Happy Feet! You can park your car and get out and walk around all of the blow-ups. There are even blow-ups on the roof and a snow machine that spits out snow every few minutes. I think we will have to keep going back every year because it really was very neat. We decided to leave Scott and Seville at home tonight and instead called our wonderful next-door neighbors Amy and Cooper to go with us on a whim…luckily they were available! The kids love seeing each other, which isn’t often enough considering we live next-door! I loved catching up with Amy for a bit too! She is pregnant and due in March with a baby girl!! YEAH!!! Here are some pics of the crazy Penguin House! They don’t even begin to do it justice!

Christmas with the Imboden's

Last night we celebrated Christmas with the Imboden’s. We were scheduled to start off the night with a huge surprise for the girls, but the winter weather put a kink in our plans and we had to postpone our special event until next Friday. However, in hindsight I think it actually worked out better because we wouldn’t have got back to the house to start our dinner and celebration until at least 7:30 or 8:00. Plus, there was no reason for any of us to risk getting in a wreck while trying to do something fun and special!! This just means we will have another special night next Friday…YIPEE!!

So, after we regrouped a bit we went over to the Imboden’s and made “breakfast for dinner” since all of our girls love breakfast so much. Kristi made and AWESOME breakfast pizza, Scott made waffles in the waffle iron, and I made bacon. The little babies even took part in the dinner and had some waffles and peaches! After dinner we opened gifts! The girls had an absolute blast and got lots of neat stuff! It was so fun to shop for Alyson and Gracyn this year…they are like little nieces to me! It is really hard to pick-out stuff for Gracyn and Seville, though, since they already have all of their sister’s old toys! Kristi and Jeremy got Seville something I had always wanted for Hadley and never got. It is a little Step 2 pink and purple buggy with a handle so that I can push her around. I absolutely love it, and she does too! Thanks guys! Hadley’s favorite gift of the night was a guitar…her and Alyson played “Hannah Montana” most of the evening! The girls also had fun dancing on a “Dance, Dance Revolution” dance mat that we got Alyson!

After presents the boys played Rock Band (of course), while us mommies put the baby girls to bed and helped the big girls make a Rice Krispie gingerbread house! After awhile the boys even let Kristi and I play Rock Band too, although I was just horrible at it last night!

Here are some pictures of our fun evening, including pictures of the boys playing Rock Band for any of you that haven’t seen the game in action yet!

Rock Band

Picture this if you will…nestled on a beautiful tree lined street in a nice suburban neighborhood there sits a house. A typical American family lives in this house with two little girls and a dog. Inside the house is a comfortable family room, and much like many other family rooms in the neighborhood there is a big screen TV. But this isn’t just any normal family room…this family room is home to a Rock Band…a new kind of Rock Band…the kind that anyone can play in…young and old alike! On the night we were there the band was made up of myself, Scott and the homeowners (a.k.a. Kristi and Jeremy). The band has also had many other members since its conception a few weeks ago, including a brother-in-law, grandparents and even some little three-year-old girls from time to time. Unlike other bands, though, the members of this band can even switch off their instrument of choice from one song to the next (guitar, drums, bass and vocals!) On this particular night as the Rock Band practiced little babies crawled around on the floor and three year-olds ran throughout the house. The dog even sat close by to see how the band would do! What kind of strange Rock Band is this you ask…well, it is a Rock Band that is becoming increasing more and more popular in family rooms across the world…it is a Play Station 3 Rock Band (or Xbox if that is your gaming system of choice!!!)

If you haven’t played it already, I suggest you do, and I think most of you will probably have the opportunity since either Rock Band or Guitar Hero seems to be on the Christmas List of almost everyone I know! It cracks me up because it is on my brother-in-law’s list, my nephew’s list, my brother’s list, our good friend’s 13-year-old daughter’s list, and now on MY husband’s list…thanks a lot Kristi and Jeremy!! Unfortunately we have to wait for Rock Band to come out on Wii (Guitar Hero is out, but not Rock Band yet and we have decided we want the multiple instruments!) But really, I have to admit that it was actually a lot of fun…I can see what it is on every Christmas list in America!

The thing I really love about Rock Band is the picture I get in my head when I think of all of these people around the world sitting in their nice family rooms (or finished basements) and playing this game. This is not a game just for teenagers…this game is coveted by 20, 30 and 40 year-olds alike…male and female! It just goes to show you that anyone can be in a Rock Band! Businessman/woman by day...Rock Band member by night!

So, if it isn’t already, you might want to put Rock Band or Guitar Hero on your Christmas List, and if it is…HAVE A BLAST!! I only wish one of us would have thought up this amazing cross generational idea…then we would have more time to play, right?!?!?

P.S. If you want to know where we will be tonight…we will be playing Rock Band…how about you? (okay, and we are celebrating Christmas too!)

Seville's 9 Month Appointment

Seville had her 9 month appointment on Wednesday. We were actually about 12 days late, but who is counting...it was the first appointment they had when I called to set it up awhile back, and it ended up working out great because I could tell her pediatrician the results of her sedated ABR in person! Anyway, Seville is doing just GREAT!! She is 17 pounds (25th percentile), 27.5 inches (50th percentile), and her head 17.25 inches around (40th percentile). For any of you keeping track this means Seville is 2 pounds and 13 ounces lighter than Hadley at the EXACT same age...hard to believe if you ask me, but any mom of two appreciates carrying around a little less weight, right!! Seville has her bottom two teeth and the top two are on their way in right now. She crawls everywhere, pulls up on everything, is starting to cruise the furniture and even lets go of things for a few seconds sometimes and stands on her own!

For those of you who have never been to our house, I thought I would share some pictures of Seville's room. It dawned on me the other day that I had never taken any pictures of her room, yet Hadley has a whole spread in her scrapbook dedicated to her baby room!! It has been my constant vow (and great worry) to make sure I have an equally great scrapbook for Seville's first year (we will see how far I get after that), so I had to take these pictures so that I can do a spread for her too! I just love decorating my girls rooms! I will have to post a picture of Hadley's room someday too! I painted squares in five different colors all over her room...it took FOREVER, but I love it!! Seville's is a bit simpler, but I love how it turned out too!

Countdown to Christmas

This year Hadley is very into Christmas, so we got her an advent calendar to help countdown the days! Everyday when we get home from school she is so excited to run over to her calendar and move the little Christmas tree to the next day and see what is in the pocket. There is always a little piece of paper with a special activity to help celebrate the season, and sometimes there is also a piece of chocolate! Most of the things are very simple and don't cost anything like driving around and looking at Christmas lights or dancing to Christmas music at home, but on a few of the days we have done something a little extra special!

Day 6: Hadley got to decorate her very own PINK Disney Princess tree and put it in her bedroom!! It was a huge hit!! She now goes to sleep with it on EVERY night!

Hadley decorating her tree!

Hadley with her tree in her room!

Day 8: For those of you who don't know, Alyson is Hadley's best friend, and last Saturday Alyson's mom was nice enough to invite us to her company's holiday celebration for kids! It was so neat, and the girls had such a blast!! The celebration was held in an old casino that her company bought and uses for corporate events! Such a fun venue...every company should have a casino!! Thanks for inviting us, Kristi!

Alyson and Hadley on the drive there!

We even braved the ice storm!

This is the closest Hadley has ever been to Santa! Hadley telling Santa that she wants a "slide for her doll house!" The girls eating cookies on bean bags! Hadley's balloon hat! Snowball game!

Day 9: Every year my mom's church has a special dinner they call "Christmas Joy!" A wonderful meal is served and then there are performances from various members of the church, including a lot of Christmas music. Hadley really enjoyed getting all dressed up to go to Christmas Joy this year! She loves Christmas music!

Somehow I actually got a picture of the girls before we left!And another!Hadley singing Jingle Bells up on the stage!Hadley up on stage with Gam's choir...such a big help!

Stay tuned for more "Countdown to Christmas" celebrations...the fun isn't over yet!! We have something VERY, VERY special planned for Hadley and Alyson this weekend! I can't wait to see their faces!!

Seville's Hearing Update

I wanted to get everyone an update on Seville’s hearing. She had a sedated ABR (auditory brainstem response) test on Friday and it went pretty good. They put her to sleep with Scott and me still in the room, which was horrible, and they ran the tempanogram with us in the room as well, which she did not do well on, and then they sent us out to the waiting room, so the whole time I was worried because the one test they had done was not good! The only thing keeping me positive was the fact that she had been turning to more sounds lately and had even started babbling earlier that week. The tempanogram checks for pressure and/or fluid in the ear, and last time she had one she had negative pressure in both ears, but this time she actually flat lined the test in the right ear, meaning that it wouldn’t even run the test and that she had a lot of fluid in her right ear. This fluid is the kind of fluid that I guess doctors cannot see…it is much deeper. The left ear still had negative pressure, but the right ear is the really bad one. Anyway, when they came out to get us after the full test they said that everything else went really well and that she does NOT have any permanent loss or damage in either ear…PHEW!! We were so thankful!! She does show some loss at all frequency levels in her right ear, but they think and hope that is just due to the fluid, and that hopefully it is starting to resolve itself. They asked how many ear infections she has had and I said NONE!! With that in mind they said it was probably best to take a “wait and see” approach. If she had multiple ear infections then they would suggest tubes. I talked to her speech pathologist again today and everyone is just so happy with her progress this last week (I mean we have gone from a silent baby to gabby gabs a lot all in ONE week) that she also recommends a “wait and see” approach for a month or so to see how she progresses on her own. We also have an appointment with her ENT next week to discuss the results of the sedated ABR and whether tubes would be a good idea at this point or not. It is hard for me to understand why we would want her to continue going around hearing things as if she is under water, but maybe he can shed some more light on that. Hopefully they can also run another tempanogram at that appointment and we can see if anything has changed…I have a feeling regular tempanograms will be in our future for quite some time (luckily you do not have to be sedated for them!) So…thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers these last few months! We are finally hearing our baby girl speak and oh how sweet it is!! Her favorite phrase right now is “yayaya”…probably for “yeah, yeah, yeah…I knew I would start talking when I wanted to…big sister will just never let me have a word in edgewise!” Also, just incase you are wondering, Seville did just great with the sedation and woke right up and had a bottle and they got us right out of there!

I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures of Seville. It was taken in July when she was 4 months old! What a cutie!!

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!!

We got our first snow today! Of course there were accidents all over town because no one in Kansas City knows how to drive in the snow...especially the first snow of the year, but we all got home safely!

Hadley and I talked Scott into hanging some lights on the house this weekend! I don't really like him getting up on our roof peaks (I guess that is the mom in me!), so we just did lights around the garage and on the bushes. We also got a few other spiral trees that Hadley really likes for the yard! It was still snowing outside when I took this picture...kind of neat I thought!

We got the tree up over Thanksgiving break!! I love having the tree up...I could leave it up all year if people didn't think I was crazy!

And all of the stockings are hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nick soon will be here...guess I better start getting some presents under the tree, huh!!

Hadley is spending the night with my Mom and Jon tonight because we have an appointment with Seville at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow at St. Luke's on the Plaza for a sedated ARB hearing test. More on that at another time, but we all definitely have some concerns about her hearing and speech, so hopefully tomorrow will give us a better idea of how well she can hear or if she is just taking her sweet time...either of which is fine with us! We just want to do what is best for her! I can't believe my little baby will have to be sedated. I can hardly think about it, but I know we need some clearer answers. Earlier tests show that she does have negative pressure in her ears and that she does not hear at lower frequencies...the test tomorrow will provide us with a lot more detailed info! Luckily she just started babbling out of the blue this week, so they think that whatever hearing loss she might have had could be starting to resolve itself! I cannot tell you how amazing it is to hear her sweet little voice after nine months of waiting!

Here is a sweet picture of my girls...they really do love being sisters!! I know they will have their moments as they get older, but I hope they are always each other's best friend! Sisterhood is such a gift!

The Journey Has Just Begun

Well, I can’t believe I am doing it, but I am! I am finally writing my first post on my first blog! I have been wanting to do it for the past six months or so, but have been scared to jump into the blogging world for fear that it will add one more item to my continuous list of things to-do that seem to loom over my head at all times, but heck, what is one more thing when it means sharing my sweet girls with family and friends who don’t get to see them as often as they would like, not to mention documenting memories for a lifetime! I never seem to have a good place to write down all of the cute things they do and say, so hopefully I will be able to use this blog to do just that and then at least once a year (hold me to this everyone!!) I want to actually print out the blog so that I will have it for them FOREVER!! So, I guess you could say that I am doing this for all of you who are reading it, but really I am doing it for MY GIRLS, because that is what my life is really all about!! They are my world…they are my EVERYTHING!! I cannot imagine life without them and my wonderful husband Scott!! I am truly so blessed!!

I do not promise to post daily, or even weekly for that matter if time gets away from me…and I do not promise to post anything elaborate like my friend Kristi does on her blog (but you go ahead and keep it up Kristi…I love seeing your beautiful layouts), but I do promise to post updates with pictures so that you can get a better glimpse into our life on a regular basis and see what life is really like “In My Daughters’ Eyes!”

If you feel like it from time to time, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think and how you are doing. I hope this will help some of us stay in touch too!

As they say…the journey has just begun…only time will tell! Enjoy the ride!!

Love, Kenna